Smriti Irani

Smriti Zubin Irani (née Malhotra; born 23 March 1976) is an Indian politician and former actress, fashion model and television producer.

Irani was one of the participants of the beauty pageant Miss India 1998 but couldn't reach the top 9, along with Gauri Pradhan Tejwani.

In 1998, Irani appeared in a song "Boliyan" of the album "Saawan Mein Lag Gayi Aag" with Mika Singh.

In 2000, she made her acting début with TV series Aatish and Hum Hain Kal Aaj Aur Kal, both of which aired on Star Plus.

Apart from this, she acted in Kavita on DD metro.

In mid-2000, Irani bagged the lead role of Tulsi Virani in Ekta Kapoor's production Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi on Star Plus for which she holds the record of winning five consecutive ITA Award for Best Actress Popular and four Indian Telly Awards. Irani had a fallout with the producer Ekta Kapoor and she left the show in June 2007 and was replaced by Gautami Kapoor.

In 2001, Smriti married a Parsi businessman, Zubin Irani.

In October the same year, the couple had their first child, a son named Zohr.

In 2002, she played the epic character Sita in Zee TV's Ramayan along with Nitish Bharadwaj In 2006, Irani co-produced the show Thodi Si Zameen Thoda Sa Aasmaan under her banner Ugraya Entertainment and co-produced by Balaji Telefilms.

She also played the lead role of Uma in it.

In September 2003, the couple had their second child, a daughter named Zoish.

Smriti is also a stepmother to Shanelle who is Zubin Irani's daughter from his previous marriage to Mona Irani, a coordinator and former beauty contestant.

Irani joined the Bharatiya Janata Party in 2003.

The following year, she was appointed vice-president of the Maharashtra Youth Wing in 2004.

In December 2004, Irani, blaming then Gujarat Chief Minister, Narendra Modi for BJP's electoral losses, threatened to fast unto death until he resigned.

In 2007, she produced the TV serial Virrudh for Sony TV and also portrayed the lead character of Vasudha in it.

She produced Mere Apne for 9X and portrayed the protagonist alongside Vinod Khanna.

She acted in a supporting role in Zee TV's Teen Bahuraaniyaan.

She made her comeback in May 2008 in a special episode, reconciling with Kapoor.

In 2008, Irani along with Sakshi Tanwar hosted the show Yeh Hai Jalwa, a dance based reality show featuring celebrities along with their troops on 9X.

In the same year she produced another show on Zee TV, Waaris which ended in 2009.

In 2009, she appeared in a comedy show Maniben.com, aired on SAB TV.

She also co-produced the show in collaboration with Contiloe Entertainment.

A prominent leader within the Bharatiya Janata Party, she was the National President of the BJP Mahila Morcha (the party's women's wing) from 2010 to 2013.

She has been a member of parliament since 2011, serving in the Rajya Sabha from Gujarat from 2011 to 2019 and since 2019 serving as a member of the Lok Sabha from the Amethi constituency in Uttar Pradesh.

In 2012, she worked in Bengali movie Amrita.

She previously served as Minister of Human Resource Development (2014 to 2016), Minister of Textiles (2016 to 2021), and Minister of Information and Broadcasting (2017 to 2018).

In the general elections held that year for the 14th Lok Sabha, she contested unsuccessfully against Kapil Sibal from the Chandni Chowk constituency in Delhi.

That election witnessed a shock defeat for the incumbent Vajpayee government.

In 2018, responding to queries about her faith, she stated that she is a practising Hindu married to a practising Zoroastrian, and that wearing sindoor is her belief as a Hindu.

She has been Minister of Women and Child Development since 2019, and also Minister of Minority Affairs since 2022 (as the first non-Muslim to hold the position).

She was the youngest minister (at age 43) in prime minister Narendra Modi's second ministry in 2019.

In the 2019 elections she gained the Amethi constituency by defeating opposition leader Rahul Gandhi, then-president of the Indian National Congress, whose family members had represented the constituency for much of the previous four decades.

Irani has a diverse family background, with her paternal family including Punjabi and Maharashtrian heritage while her maternal family has a Bengali heritage, and she speaks several Indian languages including Hindi, Bengali, Marathi, Gujarati, and Punjabi.

She was born as Smriti Malhotra, the daughter of a half-Punjabi, half-Maharashtrian Hindu father, Ajay Kumar Malhotra, and a Bengali Hindu mother, Shibani née Bagchi.

She is the eldest among three sisters.

Her mother was a member of Jana Sangh and her grandfather was associated with Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.

Smriti was educated at the Holy Child Auxilium School, New Delhi, which is run by Catholic nuns.

Later, she enrolled in School of Open Learning at University of Delhi.

In 2019, she revealed that she had written her first year B.Com. exams from that institution, but had not completed the three-year degree course.